Two Lords of Time: Reborn!
by Sar'Kalu
Summary: AU. Sequel to "Two Lords of Time", a HarryP/BuffyVS XOver. Chaos strikes again, but this time, the walls between parallels have weakened dangerously and it is time for Harry and Xander to return home...
1. Chapter 1

**Title**

Two Lords of Time: Reborn

**Author**

Sar'Kalu

Summary

_Chaos strikes again, but this time, the walls between parallels have weakened dangerously and it is time for Harry and Xander to return home..._

Disclaimer

_Harry Potter_ is the Intellectual property of J.K Rowling, Bloomsbury Books and Warner Brothers Entertainment and their various affiliations; _Doctor Who_ is the Intellectual property of the British Broadcasting Corporation and their affiliates; _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox Television, Joss Whedon and their various affiliates; no monetary gain is received in the publishing of this fiction. Any and all script usage in this fiction belongs to the BBC and 20th Century Fox and their various affiliates and no monetary gain will be collected from their use.

Rating

Ma15+: Character death, explicit language, explicit sexual behaviour and content, and extreme violence.

...

...

**Part Two**

**Chapter 1.**

"Where are we?"

Harry spun around in a circle as he stared down dark city streets and up at the towering skyscrapers. It was dark and silent. Never a good combination, Harry thought to himself. Beside him Xander was peering down at his Vortex Manipulator and frowning. That was also a very bad sign. Not only because Xander frowning often meant danger, but equally could mean that he was thinking and Xander thinking was always a painful sight. Harry felt Xander's mental recrimination at that teasing thought, their hands gripped together almost painfully. There were times when Time Lord touch-telepathy was awkward and annoying but now wasn't one of those times.

"Hmm," Xander fiddled with the switches on his highly modified vortex manipulator. "No idea." He finally admitted, spinning around himself, taking in the concrete, tarmac and glass that surrounded them. It was very definitely Earth, late 20th century or 21st century, if he had to hazard a guess. Although the readings on his wrist strap said something very differently; apparently the co-ordinates said Medusa Cascade; and the Medusa Cascade was very, very far away from Earth.

Harry however was no longer looking at the buildings or the cars. No, he was staring straight up and wondering just what he and Xander had gotten into this time. "Xan?"

"Yeah?" Xander hummed, staring at what looked like a robot that was wheeling down the street towards them. "What's up?"

"I think this is Earth." Harry said almost nonchalantly.

"Yeah? The co-ordinates said…"

"Medusa Cascade, yeah I know." Harry interrupted, despite not having read the vortex manipulator or Xander's thoughts. Xander, distracted from his study of the strange being that slowly wheeled down the street, it looked oddly familiar, turned to face his long-time friend. Harry shivered as he watched the sky and he pointed upwards. It was fairly self-explanatory after all.

Xander looked up and felt his mind go blank in shock. That was not supposed to be possible!

Above their heads swirled, what appeared to be, an entire solar system. Harry had counted twenty-two planets, not including the one he stood on, swirling in silent but majestic splendour in the night sky. It wasn't true night of course, merely dark with an entire kaleidoscope of colours swirling and dancing in an impossible conflagration around them. It was magnificent. It was beautiful.

It should have been impossible.

"Well." Xander said haltingly, his voice thick from his shock and awe. "That's new."

Harry grinned, his eyes shining with delight. "It's beautiful."

Xander stared at the gorgeous display above them and smiled broadly but even as he did so he knew that he was forgetting something: something important. A something that caused chills to run up and down his spine. Harry frowned as he felt Xander's increasing fear and wariness, and the two Time Lord's felt in unison, a prickling upon the back of the neck. The duo spun around and felt the blood run from their faces in terror.

It was as though their nightmares had come to life in front of them. The height of an average human male, the colour of dull bronze and decorated with strange globular protuberances; the Dalek was a vivid and horrific reminder of all that they had lost, all that they had seen and all that they had fled from. Four hearts almost ceased beating as two pairs of eyes dilated in terror.

"Identify yourselves!" The Dalek ordered; its glowing blue eyestalk focused on the two Time Lord's with curious hatred.

Harry opened his mouth but was barely managing to breath let alone talk. Beside him, Xander was in similar straits and neither boy felt much like doing more than turning tail and sprinting in the opposite direction. Harry tried again, his mouth opening and closing much like a landed fish. Xander was shaking his head, hands outstretched as though to push the Dalek as far away from him as possible.

The Dalek narrowed its gaze, zooming in on the obvious signs of recognition and fear that both beings showed. Suspicion unfurled in its singular mind and it automatically followed protocol in running diagnostics on both boys. It didn't take long before the identity of both boys flooded its synapses'. The information was immediately shared along the Dalek path-web and upon the Crucible alarms blared and sirens wailed.

"You are Time Lords!" The Dalek shouted in shock and intense hatred. "You will be detained and taken to the Crucible!"

Light flared from the Dalek's plunger and coalesced around the suddenly very frightened Time Lords, their eyes staring around them in shock and fear. The light snapped tightly around them, restraining the pair and acting like rope as it slowly tightened until both boys had difficulty breathing. The Dalek set the co-ordinates of the transmat beam on the Crucible and with a press of a button sent Harry and Xander aboard the Dalek mother ship.

Harry and Xander landed heavily on their knees in the centre of a very large vault, the darkened metal hard on their legs and arms as they rolled onto their backs, groaning pitifully. Xander dragged in a breath, noting the metallic taste of the air and the dull throbbing of his head. Harry's hands extended sideways, long fingers gripping Xander's hands with terrified intensity, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. Xander sent soothing emotions through their mental connection and shuddered in denial. They were going to die.

Despite all their running, their evading, their hiding in human form, he and Harry were going to die.

…

…

**End Chapter 1.**

**...**

**...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two.**

**Chapter 2.**

Harry was the first to sit up, green eyes taking in the horrifically familiar decor around him. Dalek's moved around with the ease of beings who knew, beyond any doubt, that they were in power aboard this ship. In front of the duo in a thick, grey metal chair sat a being with grey skin and a glowing blue eye set into his forehead. Harry knew immediately and with a sense of complete and utter horror at who the being in front of him was.

Scrambling upright and pulling Xander with him, Harry found himself reliving the horror of the last great Time War even as he breathed a single word in sheer terror: "Davros!"

Xander let out a moan and laced his fingers with Harry's own tightly, he would be damned before letting Harry go. No, if they were going to die, they would die together. Harry pressed himself backwards into Xander's lean form and tried to control his shudders. Nothing would be achieved from panicking. But they were so young, had seen so little of what the universe had to offer. It couldn't end here and now. Not now, not yet.

"You are an insidious race, aren't you, Time Lord?" Davros sneered, disgust lacing his voice as he stared in surprise at the two Time Lord's in front of him.

"Time Lord?" A female voice exclaimed in shock behind him, and Harry nearly turned his head to stare at her except that Davros was now moving towards him and he didn't want to lose sight of the dreadful being in front of him.

"You died!" Harry whispered, sharing his memories with Xander as he stared in sheer terror at Davros.

Xander shuddered and tightened his grip. He had been deemed too young to fight in the Time War at first, until the fall of Arcadia and the Time Lord's last stand. "You flew into the jaws of the Nightmare Child," Xander breathed, shocked at the memories his best friend and brother held within his traumatised mind. Harry had seen and done far worse than Xander could dream of; Davros' supposed end was barely the tip of the iceberg.

"That idiot Doctor tried to save you," Harry said bitterly, "I had hoped he hadn't succeeded." Harry turned his face away, tears stinging his eyes and Xander shuddered, no longer with fear, but with the force of his sobs. Gallifrey had fallen. The Time Lords were no more. "It was all for nothing."

There was movement behind them and Harry snarled angrily, he knew that he should check to make sure the human was fine, that she was unharmed but the horror of his situation was far too much to deal with currently and the knotting of his shoulder muscles was the only sign of his increasing rage. Xander felt the storm of Harry's rage wash over him and felt it dry the tears wetting his face and firm his gelatinous backbone. Gallifrey might be gone but they could extract revenge on the despicable beings that had wrecked so much damage on their home world.

Harry short sharp breaths burned in his lungs and he straightened his shoulders and lifted his head. "If the Time War did not destroy you, Davros of the Kaled race, then we shall!"

Their shared rage was a tangible force that sung and burned along their mental bond. Swirling dangerously like a beast beneath their skin and Harry drew in short sharp breaths as his blazing emerald eyes glared at the amused and unaffected Kaled in front of him. Xander's grip was grinding the bones of Harry's hands together as his own fury roared like a towering inferno. Neither boy had ever been this angry before now, but both could be forgiven for such rage. It had been less two decades since Gallifrey, their home, had been destroyed by the very race of beings that surrounded them. Harry's jaw rippled with the force of his restraint; how he desired to shred that arrogant face that smirked smugly at him from his wheelchair.

"No!" A voice, masculine this time, barked from behind them. "You can't!"

"Kaled?" The human female asked, sounding confused. "Doctor, what is a Kaled?"

Xander had spun around at the sound of the familiar voice, he had been in Arcadia when the Doctor had declared 'no more', had heard the wailing terror of his mental voice as he screamed his intentions to murder billions of innocent lives. He had been there when the Master had laughed at his old friend's victorious rampage as the Doctor had stood in the shadow of the Academy, the blood of thousands staining his hands. Xander had been the one to hand over his gun to the Doctor when the Doctor-who-was-not had left his last and final message to the Dalek race: _Gallifrey Stands_.

Xander had been betrayed that day. The Time Lords had been betrayed that day. Gallifrey did not stand and already it had been relegated to myth and legend; forgotten by all but the 'higher' races.

"Doctor!" Xander bared his teeth angrily; Harry and he had grown up listening to the awed whispering of the older Time Lords, about the _Rebels_. About the dangerous, interfering but exciting adventures the Rebels of the Pyrodonian Academy had gone on. He had listened and watched as the Doctor broke promise after promise, burning Gallifrey with his hatred and rage, and destroying most of the Dalek fleet. He had stood aside, clinging to Harry's hand, as the Doctor betrayed the last of the Time Lords; slaughtering _billions_.

If Harry had felt rage in the face of his uselessness and his inability to save Gallifrey; it was nothing to the fury Xander felt as he stared into the light brown eyes of the most infamous Time Lord ever to be born on Gallifrey. The Doctor, the name for healer and wise-man; how far he had fallen now.

The pink and blonde human female at his side must be his most recent… companion; she looked just a stupid and ineffectual as the last one. The Doctor's fondness of planet Earth was well known to his fellow Time Lord brethren and Xander wondered if the Doctor's destruction of the Shining Planet of the Seventh System had been a result of his desire, no… need to protect his precious little earthlings. How tragically ironic would that have been, Xander bitterly reflected, considering their current situation.

"Doctor," Xander hissed and his eyes blazed with rage while his free hand knotted into a tight fist at his side, behind him Davros was delighted at the hatred the Doctor seemed to inspire in his brethren. Harry's eyes narrowed, allowing Xander to speak. "You too shall burn," he promised the older Time Lord, watching as those light brown eyes widened in shock and shame, "you who sanctioned the destruction of Gallifrey!"

"I never…" The Doctor trailed off, his eyes wide as comprehension sank in. He would be held to account by both Time Lords and he felt nothing but relief at the thought. Perhaps now he would be allowed to die for his sins.

Xander sneered and spun around once more, recognising the light prison for what it was. He would not have to worry about treachery from the Doctor this day. Harry was trembling at his side, the rage both Time Lord's felt doubling up and looping in on itself. Xander dropped his friends hand and Harry drew in a sharp breath and behind them the Doctor let out a breath of realisation. Rage such as theirs would only be heightened if they allowed the mental link to continue.

"What is going on?" The human female demanded of the Doctor but she was ignored in favour of watching the confrontation between Harry and Davros.

"How did you escape?" Harry was demanding of the wheelchair bound Kaled scientist. "How are you free of the Time Lock?"

"One better than the Doctor was required to set me free!" Davros hissed, angry at having been forgotten, even if only temporarily.

"And just what, or who, was so fabulous?" Xander sneered as he pressed his fists tightly to his legs. "Who would dare to shatter a billions years' worth of Time Lord technology?"

Davros sneered back at the younger time lord and flicked a switch on his wheelchair and gestured. Xander and Harry turned, unwillingly, away from the Kaled scientist and watched as light illuminated the writhing, twitching form of a mutated Kaled.

A Dalek removed of its protective wrapping of darlekanium.

"Behold the prophesier, Dalek Caan!" Davros exclaimed triumphantly knowing that the Doctor, more than his younger fellows, would recognise the last of the Cult of Skaro. The Doctor let out a hiss of recognition and pressed himself against the walls of his prison even as both Harry and Xander backed away in disgust.

"It's so cold and dark!" Caan giggled madly waving his twisted tentacles about. "Fire is coming, the endless flames of cleansing!"

Harry let out a snarl of anger and his fists tightened once more but he did not move. The Doctor let out a second hiss, this time of rage, and the human female turned to him, her eyes demanding. Xander gritted his teeth; he had recognised the markings on the outside of the ruined darlekanium shell. This was a Dalek of the Cult of Skaro. All three Time Lords however, felt, rather than saw, the connection Caan held to the Time Webs. The Dalek's mind was shattered and ruined from what it had seen and all three pitied it, even as they loathed it.

"What is that thing?" The pink and yellow female demanded, clearly tired of her questions being unanswered.

"You've met before," The Doctor replied, his eyes burning from the force of his determined anger. Harry and Xander backed away, falling into line with the Doctor; for once forgetting their anger at the Destroyer of Gallifrey and instead focusing on the matter at hand, "the Last of the Cult of Skaro."

"Well that's some good news at least," Xander commented almost blandly, his face twisted into a raging snarl. "The destroyers of Arcadia are no more."

The Doctor felt himself twitch at the naming of Gallifrey's greatest Citadel; the home of the Time Lords. "But it flew, unprotected, into the Time War!"

Harry's mind blanked. "A single, simple Dalek broke through a thousand years of Time Lord technology?" He barked incredulously. The hilarity of that notion was very nearly overwhelming.

"Caan did more than that!" Davros gloated, staring up at Caan with a deep sense of pride. Xander and the Doctor bared their teeth, scowls deeply etched into their features. Harry was a bit more circumspect, he stared at the Dalek with curiosity; what could this Dalek have done to have earned such… unnatural devotion from the hatred driven Kaled and Daleks? "He saw Time. In its infinite majesty! Raging through his mind, and he saw you. Both of you."

Harry let out another wordless snarl, his eyes blazing. "Well he didn't see us!" He bit out, furious at the Dalek who tainted the Time Web with its murderous hatred.

Caan laughed madly in reply. "I have seen!" Caan giggled and Xander was hard pressed not to vomit up bile at the thought of Caan's abilities and foresight. None but the Time Lords were able to truly understand the Web of Time and all its infinite probability's. None had the brain capacity, _the training_, to understand. "In the wind and the wild, this I have foreseen, at the end of everything! And the Doctor will be here as witness; he and his precious Children of Time!" Caan's high pitched laugh grated across the nerves of all three Time Lords and their baser instincts raged at them. It was an offence to them all for Caan to know what only Time Lords knew.

"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna?!" The Doctor raged beating his hands against the prison of light that restrained him. Davros laughed cruelly, delighted at the loss of control that the older Time Lord showed while Harry and Xander made to step forwards, instinctually protecting their fellow even as they halted the movement in disgust at his protection of the humans even now. But they also understood the Doctor's problem; Gallifrey was no more, what did the Time Lords have now but the Humans? "Why did the TARDIS doors close?! TELL ME!"

"Oh there it is!" Davros gloated, pride and satisfaction bleeding through his voice at having made the Doctor 'reveal' himself to his pitiful human companion. "The anger, the rage, the _fire_ of a Time Lord, who _butchered_ millions;" Davros stared eagerly at the Doctor who gritted his teeth and remained silent while Harry and Xander stepped closer to him. Silently supporting the older Time Lord, who was feeling overburdened from everything that had recently occurred. It was too much; even for the Doctor, great as he might be.

"There he is." Davros continued smugly, cocking his head to the side in contemplation. "Why so shy?" He asked, smirking with pleasure as he crept closer to the human female. The Doctor turned his face away, staring at Harry in supplication and closed his eyes in pain when Harry's eyes flittered away in denial. "Show your companions; show them your true self. Dalek-Caan has promised me that."

Harry burned at the sound of Davros' gloating pleasure and tried to ignore the pain of the Doctor which resounded like a gong against his mental shields. There were times when being telepathic was irritating, no matter how… restrained said telepathy was. "Show us his true face?" Harry breathed his voice an insidious whisper that crawled gratingly across Davros' spine. "We were in Arcadia when it fell. We watched the Doctor _burn_ billions. We _cheered_ when the Dalek fleet _fell_ to the fire and chaos that the Doctor and his companions _wrought_. _We watched Gallifrey fall_." Davros stared at the younger Time Lord in shock. "You have _nothing_ left to show us, Kaled!"

Harry stood straight and tall as he glared down at the wheelchair bound scientist and felt, rather than saw, Xander standing proudly at his side. The Doctor watched them with quiet pride; he truly had missed the arrogance and assuredness that his entire race wore like a cloak. None could give a verbal slap-down like a Time Lord, he smirked.

Caan disagreed and laughed madly once more, dragging the attention back to his corner of the vault; yellow eye peering out at the youthful Time Lord who glared in hatred at him. "I have seen, at the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed!"

"And I have _known_ the very depths of _hatred_, of _despair_, of _rage_! And, I declare that you, _Dalek Caan_, know _nothing_ of either!" Harry shouted back.

"What does that mean?" The human female asked, clearly querying the Dalek's claim more than Harry's assertion.

"We will discover it together," Davros promised her, preferring to ignore that angry Time Lord that snapped and snarled at him, "our final journey."

"Leave her alone!" The Doctor snapped, gritting his teeth.

Davros dismissed the Doctor as he crept closer to the human and smirked. "She is mine to do with as I wish!" He spat at the Time Lord and Harry grunted in disgust.

"She is human!" Xander echoed Harry's unvoiced thoughts.

"She is the Doctor's." Davros informed the duo. "Striding parallel to parallel to find him again; a perfect match made in rebellious heaven, don't you think?"

Harry's eyes widened and he stiffened while the Doctor shot the girl a small smile. Did the older Time Lord not know? Did he not see? Did he truly not understand the harm the human female had wrought upon the universe? Rebellious indeed, Harry sneered in disgust. Xander missed the implications as he stared at the human in shock and no small amount of disgust.

"She's human," Xander repeated utterly revolted.

"Oi!" The Human female objected, offended. "I might be human but I'm just as important as Time Lords!"

"Rose," the Doctor warned, wincing at the horrified expressions on the other Time Lords faces. "Not now."

Davros watched the exchange with amusement and gestured with his hand to a nearby Dalek who, along with three others, lined up at their stations pulling up a massive Vid-Screen. Harry spun around and watched the suddenly industrious Daleks around him with concern; nothing good would come of this, he was absolutely certain.

"What are you doing?!" Harry demanded seconds ahead of the Doctor who was back to being pressed desperately against his confines.

"The ending approaches." Davros stated calmly. "The testing begins."

"Testing?" Xander asked not entirely certain that he wanted the answer. "What testing?"

Davros smirked as he replied, "the Reality Bomb."

"The reality bomb? What in seven hells is a reality bomb?" Harry demanded wracking his brain for the answer as he watched the planets come on screen. Davros ignored him.

A grating voice came on overt the loud speaker and the denizens inside the Vault were subjected to the announcement of a countdown. "Testing the calibration of the reality bomb; firing in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven…"

"The apotheosis of my genius," Davros replied smugly cutting across the countdown. "Behold!"

"Four, three, two, one, zero." The countdown finished and the three Time Lords were filled with a sudden feeling of dread.

"Activate the planetary alignment field." The Dalek on the loudspeaker ordered.

"The planets…" Harry breathed, he turned to the Doctor. "How many are there?!"

"Twenty seven," the Doctor replied, not taking his eyes away from the screen. The planets were lit up with a strange kind of white energy that crackled and snapped around them. Recognition flooded his mind, but not even Davros would do that… would he?

"That's z-neutrino energy…" Xander identified the strange light while Harry cocked his head in shock.

"Flattened by the planetary alignment into a single string," Harry finished numbly; there was _nothing_ they could do.

The Doctor was frantic. "NO! Davros, you can't! You can't! _No_!"

...

...

**End Chapter 2.**

...

...


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Two.**

**Chapter 3.**

"What?" Rose demanded trying to understand why the Doctor was so agitated and the other two, the unnamed Time Lords, were so sad as they stared at the screen. The light faded once more and Rose felt her stomach plummet; the black haired Time Lord's expression was devastation personified. What had just happened? "Doctor, what's happened?!"

"Electrical energy, Miss. Tyler," Davros explained triumphantly. "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The reality bomb cancels it out and structure falls apart." Harry and Xander were shaking their heads in numb shock, this could not be happening. This should not be possible. Davros smirked at them, "that test was focused on the prisoners alone; full transmission will dissolve every form of matter!"

Rose stared at the trio of Time Lords and felt sick, her face white and her eyes huge. "The stars are going out." Her voice was numb and she was unable to look at the three Time Lords beside her, understanding too little, far too late. Horror filled her, this was not what her 'next meeting' with the Doctor was supposed to be like. Not like this. Never this.

"And what will you rule, Davros, when there are no stars in the sky?" Harry asked the Kaled dully.

Davros ignored Harry's comment, turning to the Doctor in smug satisfaction. The Doctor stared back silently, feeling the furious and impotent rage that rebounded caustically against his mental shields. Harry and Xander were feeling helpless, their earlier hatred subsiding into a kind of hopelessness; the Doctor almost felt sorry for them.

"The twenty seven planets," the Doctor continued seeing that Rose didn't understand. Not really. Or perhaps she did and simply need the comfort of one, who she felt, should be able to stop this.

"They become one vast transmitter." Xander picked up the explanation, meeting the human's eyes for the first time since arriving unexpectedly in front of them, "A transmitter that will blast that wavelength across the universe."

"Never faltering, never stopping, never fading," Davros agreed exultantly. "People and planets and stars will become dust; and the dust will become atoms and the atoms will become…"

"Nothing," Harry finished bitterly, clenching his fists at his sides. Why must the Dalek and Kaled race destroy everything? Why couldn't they help and unite the universe much like the human race would in a few thousand years? What had gone so wrong in their genetic makeup that hatred was all they could feel?

"A wavelength that will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade," The Doctor added coldly cutting across Davros who had made to continue in his triumphant reveal.

"A rift…" Harry breathed staring at the Doctor in shock, "but the multiverse?"

"Every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation," Davros finally cut back in, drawing attention away from the trio of Time Lords who had almost stolen the limelight away from him. Baring blackened teeth in a manic grin Davros clutched at his head and pointed at the older Time Lord in his prison of light. "This! This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"

"How is that a victory?" Xander asked almost inaudibly as he stared at the insane Kaled. "In what way is the destruction of the universe and all of reality, a victory?"

The Doctor met the younger Time Lords eye and shrugged. "I have no idea."

"We just wanted to travel and see the stars. We wanted nothing of war or strife and now there will be nothing left to experience." Xander continued and Harry laced his fingers with his friend, lending support as the Time Lords contemplated the destruction of the universe that their entire species had watched over for eons.

The loudspeaker crackled to life once more and the Doctor gritted his teeth in anger as a Dalek announced the very thing that the three Time Lords were dreading. "Prepare for universal detonation, the fleet will gather at the Crucible; all Daleks will return to shelter from the cataclysm. We will be the only life forms in existence!"

"Because that's something to be excited by," Xander snarked sourly, glaring around at the Daleks gathered in the Vault.

Harry snorted in half-hearted amusement. "You have to admit that it could solve a lot of problems for them. There is no way that the Daleks could ever beat the Sontaran's in a fair fight."

"Nor the Raxacoricofallapatorian's," The Doctor added swiftly, smirking at the duo at his side. Harry grinned, an expression that was all teeth and no joy. Rose stared at the trio of Time Lords and shook her head in denial, they were laughing at the destruction of the universe; how could they laugh at that?

"Your poor attempts at levity will not change the Supreme Dalek's decision; universal detonation will occur in less than 1'500rels!" A nearby Dalek shouted angrily, clearly smarting from the Time Lord's antics. Its eyestalk moved up and down in agitation while Harry sneered at it.

"What is a rels, Doctor?" Rose asked quietly as Harry and Xander jibed the Dalek's pathetic attempts to rule the unpopulated universe.

The Doctor blinked in surprise, having forgotten that Rose was standing beside him. It had been so long since he had felt the mental connection between Time Lords that he found himself overly distracted by it. Xander, feeling the Doctor's preoccupation, smirked broadly and winked at the older Time Lord. "A rel?" He asked Rose, who nodded impatiently. "It's a measurement of Time, 1.2 human seconds long if I'm not mistaken."

"Which you never are," Rose flirted slightly and Harry shot the human girl a disgusted look. Surely the Doctor had not been alone so long as to actually… breed with the human female? The Doctor flushed slightly and refused to meet anyone's eyes, his chin lifted defiantly.

…

…

"Transmission from the Bridge!" A Dalek shouted as a second screen popped up beside the first which still displayed the twenty-seven planets.

A human woman sat onscreen, her dark skin smooth with youth and vitality while her dark eyes glittered with intelligence and compassion. Harry watched her eyes widen with surprise and pleasure as she sighted the Doctor while the other human, Rose, frowned in confusion. The Doctor grinned up at her briefly before his face fell into more serious lines as the human woman, Martha Jones, began to speak once she had identified herself.

"This is a message for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat, this is a message for the Dalek Crucible; can you hear me?" Martha called over the flickering screen.

The Doctor turned to Davros in desperation. "Put me through! Let me speak!"

Davros ignored his prisoner and smiled cruelly. "It begins as Dalek Caan foretold!"

"The Children of Time will gather and one of them will die!" Caan giggled madly.

"Stop saying that!" The Doctor growled at the insane Dalek before turning to Davros once more. "Put me through!"

Martha, however, had caught sight of the Time Lord's desperate expression and she stared at him sadly. "I'm sorry Doctor, but I have to," her voice was sorrowed and Harry could hear the tiny catches that said louder than words that she was close to crying. What had she seen to make her so desperate?

"Oh but the Doctor is powerless; my prisoner." Davros gloated as he stared up at the screen. "State your intent."

Martha looked down for a moment and Xander wondered just what the Doctor precious humans had cooked up now. She gritted her teeth and lifted her gaze to determinedly meet Davros' glowing blue eye, so similar to a Dalek's. "I have the Osterhagen Key, leave this planet and its peoples alone or I'll use it!" She threatened and Harry stared at her with shock. Threatening the Daleks? Martha Jones had better have something very big and very dangerous to back that up.

"Osterhagen what?" The Doctor babbled, clearly as shocked as Harry was as he stared at his companion. How many companions did this incarnation of the Doctor have? "What's an Osterhagen Key?"

"A key made by a human named Osterhagen I imagine." Harry drolly replied. "More's the question, just what does an Osterhagen Key do, human?

Martha barely batted an eyelash at the address that Harry had used. "There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust." Martha explained, biting her lip in determined nervousness. "If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."

Harry felt Xander's shocked amazement, truly, would the human woman commit such an atrocity to save the universe from the hatred of the Dalek race? Did she truly think that it would stop them? It was an honourable attempt certainly, and worthy of acclaim, but no more useful than Harry or Xander's briefly considered thought of stabbing Davros with the knives they carried in their left boots.

"What?" The Doctor breathed in sharply, his eyes wide. He could feel the subtle currents of his fellow Time Lords, they felt amused at the small, simple humans arrogance in thinking that ripping the Earth apart could possibly stop the Daleks and also the interested admiration they felt in equal measure to the amusement, after all, Martha was being incredibly brave… if foolish. "Who invented that?" The Doctor sputtered in horror. "Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose." The Doctor answered his own question as the amusement of the other Time Lords spiked. "Martha, are you insane?"

Harry grinned wolfishly as the dark skinned human female replied with determined sadness and defiance; why had the Doctor left this one behind, she was worthy of a Time Lords regard! Xander felt Harry's dark amusement and felt it echo within the confines of his own hearts, this human was gutsy, he'd give her that.

"The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option." The human female replied desperately to the Doctor, staring at him in abject misery and yet determinedly set upon this horrible path to her races destruction. Unwittingly, Martha Jones had just impressed two very young Time Lords with her brash bravery and dogged determination.

"That's never an option." The Doctor whispered, horror bleeding through every syllable; his memories of Gallifrey burning in his mind's eye and filling his heart with pain and anguish.

"And yet, you burned Gallifrey," Harry retorted sarcastically to Davros' joy. The Kaled grinned insanely, like Harry and Xander, Davros could admire the brave stupidity it took for the human female.

Martha apparently didn't hear Harry's sly and cruel retort as she snapped her own reply: "Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Her dark eyes were fierce as she stared down at her friend, that amazing man who had shown her the stars. "Because it's more than that," Martha continued determinedly, gripping the key tightly in her fist. "Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something.

"But what if it becomes twenty six?" Martha demanded of the Doctor, who stared at her in shocked dismay. "What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?" Martha shouted, her voice becoming high-pitched in her fear, anger and ballsy determination. Harry grinned wolfishly in reply, oh yes; this one was brilliant, much better than the pink and yellow female.

"She's good." The pink and yellow human female –Rose, said with a bright grin. Harry hummed in agreement, ignoring the poisonous blackness that the Doctor was feeling as he regarded his companion sadly.

"Who's that?" Martha questioned, getting side-tracked as she stared at the blonde girl who was grinning up at her in approval. Was that who Martha thought she was?

"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler." Rose answered with a bright smile.

Martha couldn't have been more shocked than had the Doctor flashed her. "Oh, my God," Martha breathed. "He found you."

Xander barely kept from vomiting as the Doctor shared a tender smile with his blonde companion; as it was, he felt sickened by the sentimental display. It was unforgivable. Harry curled his fingers around Xander's hand tightly, silently agreeing with his friend's assessment.

"Second transmission; internal," A Dalek cried out, surprising the Supreme Dalek, who was overseeing the last preparations of the Reality Bomb.

"Display," commanded the Supreme Dalek.

"Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls," announced a tall handsome human male with bright blue eyes. Behind him stood an older blonde female human and a darker skinned human male and a red haired human female. Captain Harkness was grinning brightly and Harry felt, more than saw, the Doctor's utter surprise. The two younger Time Lords recognised the small diamond-appearing thing that Harkness held: a warp star. Both were very much impressed; talk about a ransom!

Jack held up the warp star that was set in a gold necklace that had been wired into the ships mainframe; Xander felt his appreciation of their apparent actions reverberate within his mind, echoed by Harry, who was smirking darkly.

Jack's blue eyes were intent and he could feel Jackie's nervousness and Mickey's solid determination at his back while Sarah Jane was seconds away from baring her teeth in angry resolve; they would not be turning away from this course of action.

"Are you receiving me?" Jack called into the camera, and the Doctor squirmed slightly, wanting to interfere with this foolishness. "Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off!"

"He's still alive." Rose gasped in relief before her voice became shocked: "Oh, my god!" Rose sputtered. "That… that's my Mum!"

"And Mickey." The Doctor agreed, no less surprised than Rose was, "Captain, what are you doing?"

"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe." Jack replied determinedly, his face grim on the VidScreen. "I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."

"You can't!" The Doctor protested helplessly, pounding on his light prison.

"Where did you get a Warp Star?" Harry inquired, his light tenor causing Jack's eyebrows to soar upwards in confused surprise. Jack didn't recognise the voice and wondered just who had pissed off the Daleks enough to be given the same kind of distinction that the Doctor had.

"From me," Sarah-Jane interjected, cutting across the Captain. "We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners."

"Impossible." Davros breathed in disbelief as he stared up at the VidScreen. "That face; after all these years."

"Davros." Sarah snarled shakily, her eyes tightening with the rage that she felt soaring like lava through her veins. "It's been quite a while. Sarah-Jane Smith. _Remember_?"

"Oh, this is meant to be." Davros gloated, ignoring the way both Harry and Xander's fists tightened with fury. Let the Time Lord's rage, they were useless anyway. "The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creations."

Harry breathed in sharply, for the Doctor's companion to have met Davros before he became the Dalek's creator meant that the Doctor had walked away from the one being whose death could have saved trillions. Xander felt the echo of Harry's rage and closed his eyes tightly as he let the waves of Harry's impotent anger crash against his mental shields. Now was not the time to lose his head.

"And I've learnt how to fight since then." Sarah hissed in quiet rage. "You let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star," she threatened. "It gets opened!"

"I'll do it." Jack agreed, his fingers flexing around the tiny, frozen explosion. "Don't imagine I wouldn't," Jack added.

Rose laughed breathlessly even as the Doctor remained silently grieving. "Now that's what I call a ransom." Rose grinned up at the two VidScreens and exulted in her fellow companions resourcefulness. "Doctor?"

"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros murmured in triumph, his blue gaze fixed upon the Doctor who stood silently in his prison.

"The Doctor's soul is revealed!" Caan sang madly, cackling in pleasure. "See him. See the _heart_ of him!"

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun," Davros snarled quietly, his gaze blazing. "But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion _them_ into weapons!" Davros held up his arms in savage acclaim. "Behold, your Children of Time!"

…

...

**End Chapter 3.**

...

...


End file.
